


sorrow split both ways

by Gay_as_fuck



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Child Soldiers, Female Protagonist, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Nohara Rin Lives, Non-Linear Narrative, Suicidal Thoughts, Tobi Rin, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 19:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14339877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gay_as_fuck/pseuds/Gay_as_fuck
Summary: When Obito dies he gives one eye to Kakashi and the other to Rin. If she can't change the world for the better, she'll just have to settle for making her mark.





	sorrow split both ways

**Author's Note:**

> Rin deserved better, so I gave writing that a bit of a try. She doesn't get a better ending or become even remotely mentally healthy but I think from a narrative perspective this is an improvement.

2.

Rin is only in the Uchiha house because she couldn’t bring herself to go to the funeral. They’re burying an empty casket as if they didn’t have parts of Obito’s body right there in the village. She stares out across his room at Obito’s belongings, childish and covered with a thin layer of dust. It's full of toys he should have given up long ago.

She doesn’t know how long she’s been sitting there, on his bed and staring at the wall. The house is empty, at a funeral she should be attending. The funeral for a boy who loved her. 

She doesn’t want to think about that, to travel down a path of regret. Anger coils like a snake in her stomach, and she bites her lip until it bleeds. 

There are two pictures on his bedside table. One is of him smiling with his grandmother, a poor old woman who's been forced to outlive both her daughter and her grandson. Beside that is a picture of their team, Obito beaming between her and Kakashi.

She licks her tongue over the cut in her lip and tastes copper in her mouth. Her legs are shaky but she stands because she can not stand the taste of blood anymore. She can’t stand this room and the memory of her friend. She can't be in a room with that picture. 

So she runs, out of his room and down halls she’s never seen before. Something hot and violent is heavy on her back, pushing her onward. She stumbles and crashes down to the floor without even feeling it. 

It’s similar to most of the other rooms in the Uchiha household but just different enough that she doesn't need to keep running. The urgency leaves her just as quickly as it came. She lays there, sprawled out on the floor and staring out with Obito’s eye. 

She hasn’t figured out how to activate the Sharingan, so when it opens with a flare of chakra she's surprised. The eye reveals a false floor, which stops her spinning mind for a moment. The part of her that’s still a thirteen-year-old girl wants to know what’s down there.

She wants to know more about Obito, who died for her. Who gave her the eye. She needs to know, so she takes what Minato taught her and runs with it. She gives herself a new mission and stands. 

She doesn’t feel her legs, her arms are heavy by her sides but she carefully opens the trap door and jumps down. The room is small, with large tapestries covering each wall. 

She takes a deep breath of stagnant air and his eye does the work for her. A story is being told in bits and pieces across every part of the room. She can only decode half of it with the Sharingan. She learns just enough that she needs something more to see what else is hidden.

She has a new objective, with a thousand different caveats hidden in each half finished line of Uchiha history. For once it's a mission she doesn't want to finish.

She takes it on anyway, like the soldier she is. 

5.  
Kisame shifts the sword on his back and stares down at the man in front of him. He’s not particularly short, but a little more so than average. Not that it makes any difference when compared to Kisame. 

He’s wearing strange black robes with red clouds on them. His head is almost completely covered, with only some of his dark brown hair poking out. Most strikingly, he has an orange mask which swirls around the only eye hole. 

“Who are you?” Kisame grunts, unsure of the odd figure who somehow snuck into his house without alerting him.

“I’m Tobi! I want you to join my team.” His voice picks up with a little-embarrassed giggle that causes Kisame to tilt his head slightly. It’s the tone of a child, but this Tobi clearly isn't one. He's always hesitant to trust unhinged men. 

“No.” He draws Samehada in one fluid motion before stabbing it through Tobi who doesn’t even flinch. He just stands there and lets out a soft huff. 

“Did you really have to do that to me? You’re mean.” He crosses his arms, the legendary blade still buried deep in his stomach. Kisame blinks and tries slashing down. His blade hits the floor with a disappointingly dull sound. Tobi's coat has no tears, and Kisame couldn't smell any blood.

“Now will you consider joining Tobi?” Kisame considers it for barely a moment before returning Samehada to his back. 

“What are you doing? Why do you want me?” 

“You're strong enough to help complete the plan. No more war, no more hate, no more uncertainty.” His voice grew cold at the end, causing Kisame to become even more wary of him. He no longer was talking like a small child. 

“I’m going to take sorrow from the world, and everything will be peaceful. No more students will be forced to kill their masters. No more lies.” Kisame’s hands curl themselves into fists while his mind supplied him with an image of his sword buried in Tobit's neck. It would be useless, considering he didn't even have a way to rip his clothing. 

“If there’s no more fighting, how am I going to get my kicks,” Kisame grunts out, wanting to steer the conversation away from his past. 

“Oh, there will still be fighting. You have to fight to reach your goal. You can find a purpose again Kisame.” Tobi’s one eye closes in a way that could only mean he was smiling. 

“Where do I sign up?” He asks, simply because he has nothing better to do. Tobi claps his hands in excitement before reaching into his coat and pulling out a neatly folded fabric of the same pattern. 

“For you.” There was another giggle as Tobi slipped back into talking like a school girl. Kisame took the fabric and rather unceremoniously let it fall open. It was another cloak exactly Kisame's size. He tossed it over his shoulder, already regretting his decision. 

1.

Most of Obito was crushed by the falling rocks. Tears and blood mixed together on his face as he took a couple of breaths that did not give him much air.

Rin was too shocked to move her body as her mind went a mile a minute. Her brain was already assessing every bone that was crushed beyond repair. A mental calculation of every possible way to lessen the damage, all of which added up to nothing. 

The part of her brain that was always working since the war started told her that there was no saving Obito. Kakashi seemed to be in a similar position, just staring and staring with his working eye. 

“Please, Rin!” Obito was begging, but the words came out breathless. “Do something.” Rin bent down next to him and laid a hand on his chest just after where the rock had ruined most of him. 

“I can’t.” She was crying, tears springing from her eyes in waterfalls. It was hard to see through the water. Kakashi wasn’t crying, but he wasn’t speaking either. He was just standing there, the reason Obito was dead, too shocked for his legs to even give out. 

“I don’t blame you.” Obito babbles while staring up at the sky with two activated Sharingan. He finally had what he had always wanted. He was weeping just as bad as she was, his mind brimming with the knowledge that he was going to die. 

“I know you can’t do anything. I don’t want to be gone. They have to remember me.” He was still rambling but the words were hard for him to get out as his chest rose and fell slowly.

“Take my eyes. Both of you. Kakashi you’re the best I could ask for and Rin, I love you.” He gave a silent laugh, at which blood bubbled up from his mouth. His chest caved, and Kakashi and Rin were left alone. 

She made quick work of him and took one of his eyes for Kakashi. It was a field operation, so it was efficient and painful. Kakashi let out a whimper that might have broken her heart moments ago. He went silent after that, knocked out but still alive. 

She implanted his other eye in her own head. Her hands were shaking, so it was a shotty job but it worked. She didn’t even care if she went blind. She didn't care about anything other than putting his eye in her socket. 

She didn't think for the rest of the mission, running on autopilot. Make sure surviving teammates are safe. Wait for the mission leader. Give a full report of what went wrong. 

Minato takes her into his arms after that, eyes darting to Kakashi who is still unconscious. Minato looks heartbroken, but she can't bring herself to feel the same way. As if someone had taken out her heart, leaving just empty space.

He hugs her close, and she doesn’t feel it. When he pulls away, there’s blood covering the space where she touched him. Her blood? Kakashi’s? Obito’s? It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t care. 

3.

Kakashi stands next to her, his headband lowered enough that no one has to look at the Sharingan hidden underneath. 

Rin hasn’t bothered to do that. She forces herself to look at a face that is no longer solely hers anymore. Obito’s eye stares out at his name, carved into the list of Shinobi who died for their village. 

“It’s been a year huh?” She asks, only to get a soft grunt of an answer. Kakashi talks less now, not that he talked much before. He’s on track to become one of ANBU, and so is she. They’re perfect candidates, who’ve learned how useless hope is. 

They’ve learned loss and it makes them exactly what Konoha needs. Obito would never have made it this far. He was too nice and cried too much. ANBU don’t help old women cross the street, they don’t give gifts, and they don’t have people to hold close.

She wonders bitterly if Konoha aims to break its hopeful children to serve a far more grim purpose. 

She has Kakashi, and he has her. It’s enough that he exists, the only other person carrying Obito around in something other than memory. They still do that of course, the scar he left on her heart is never going to leave. It’s a sick feeling, that she can’t let Obito go. Part of her wants to, to forget and recover.

The other part of her, stronger than it has ever been, refuses to let her do so. Obito is dead, and she has to carry his memory. He loved her and she has to keep that close to her chest.

“I didn’t love him.” She says since sometimes it’s easier to say something than it is to think about it. The words exit her mouth without breaking her voice. They’re out of her body for now, which is something at least. She doesn’t have to simmer in them anymore.

“I did,” Kakashi replies, not looking to her.

She doesn’t know if that’s better or worse. It doesn’t matter, he’s gone and she shouldn’t care anymore. She is the weapon, and if her eye is a part of her then it is a tool for her to use. 

6.

She sees Kakashi once again, with all of the Akatsuki gathered and her goals so close to being complete. 

He has four children with him. The blond boy who holds the Nine-tails, a pink haired girl with bloody knuckles, a boy with the features of a dog, and another boy with a coat not so unlike those of the Akatsuki. 

The children all want to kill her, but she doubts they can. Nothing could, not even their master. They all try, some with more tact than others. The wolf boy tries to rip into her, and so does the fox carrier. They do nothing. Kakashi is better of course, and his lightning blade slips through her stomach, just as it did so many years ago.

He has his Sharingan open, swirling with one more symbol than Obito had ever unlocked. She wants to tear it out of him, but she doesn’t. 

She simply warps away, comforted by the idea that they’re terrified of her. Kakashi most of all, faced with an enemy he can’t kill and a friend who won't die. two things he's never run into before.

He's scared enough that he'll never forget her or Obito. She's proven her existence to him.

4.

“Kakashi, what are you doing here?” She asks, even though she knows the ANBU don’t use names. His dog mask stares her down, empty and unfeeling. His hands are tight by his sides, while hers are dripping with blood. 

“You’ve become a danger to the village.” He says as if he believes it. She pulls herself away from the body she was just finishing off. The best way to make sure something stays dead is to wound it more. As a former medic, she knows exactly what points to hit.

“I’m no more dangerous than you are.” She counters and pulls her hands into a ready position in case she might have to make signs. 

“You’re wild.” Kakashi’s voice is deadpan. He's an apathetic asshole she's yet to get true emotion out of. She wants to see him hurt, to hear him beg or scream. When she was younger, she dreamed of making him smile or laugh. 

Oh, how things change.

“I know what I’m doing. I’ve gone past ANBU and found my own motivations. You’re just a dog on a leash.” She gives him a joyless smile. It was the same one she gave the people who had tried to force her to carry the three tails. She is done taking on other people's sorrow. 

Kakashi moves quickly, his hand encased in the lightening she knows so well. It pops and crackles in a deadly song. She could be weaving signs or dodging. It would have been so easy to kill him there and be done with it. 

She lets her hands fall to her sides, and as his trusts itself through her chest, his body starts to shake. She learned how to turn off her pain receptors long ago, and revels in seeing him so upset. 

She pushes his mask aside with the last of her strength, to see tears spring from his eyes. The emotion that had been building in his chest since his father died. She smiles at him again, triumphant at last. He will never forgive himself, she just made sure of that. 

She hadn’t had to lift a finger and yet she’d wounded Kakashi deeper than any blade. She slips from his hand, slick with blood. Her body hits the ground headfirst in slow motion. She could feel death closing in on her. 

The last thought Rin has before she dies is that her mouth tastes of dirt and a bitter victory.


End file.
